I7 




^r&Jtit- garrisons Sc (Erasfelh, (3lnc* 



NEW YORK - PHILADELPHIA - CHICAGO 

BOSTON - SAN FRANCISCO 

LONDON: 1-4 GREAT TOWER STREET 

COLOMBO CALCUTTA BATAVIA 

SHANGHAI HANKOW FOOCHOW 

SHIDZUOKA (JAPAN) DAITOTEI (FORMOSA) 



MAR 20 1919 

(S>GI.A526031 



FOREWORD 

I^^^^^^^HE reason tKat so little is known of tne 
m ^ manufacture of Tea in CKina is because 
^^^^ foreigners Kave been discouraged from visit- 
ing tKe producing districts — in fact, actual hostilib? 
Kas been sKovv'n to would-be explorers. 

niiis trip was inspired h^ tKe possibility) of per- 
suading tKe Natives to improve tKeir metKods, a 
difficult task, as all of tKem are convinced tKat tKe 
S3)stem adopted by tKeir ancestors and Kallowed by 
antiquity must of necessity be better tKan any modern 
ideas. Hlie result of tKe visit leaves us astounded 
tKat any quality at all is exKibited in CKina Tea. 
nrbe crop ma^) be said "just to Kappen," as tKere is 
no attempt at culti\)ation nor is any care taken in its 
manufacture, tKus proving tKat tKe inKerent qualities 
must be wonderful. HTiere is not a doubt tKat v?itK 
careful cultivation and picking and proper manufac- 
ture, CKina could produce some of tKe finest Tea in 
tKe World. 

IRWIN-HARRISOKfS & CR055FIELD, Inc. 

Robert L. HecKt, 

SECRETARY 



COPYRIGHT 1919 

BY IRWIN-HARRISONS& CROSSFIELD, Inc. 

NEW YORK 



A TRIP 

TO THE 

KEEMUN TEA 
DISTRICT 




N the Spring, our long discussed project of a 
trip to fhe Keemun Tea district, to see at first 
Kand tKe process of manufacture, \\^a5 at length 
realized. For 



this, in part, we 
were indebted to the 
Chinese Government 
who provided us \<)ith an 
escort for the trip and 
notified the local authori- 
ties of our coming, so that 
most of the difficulties 
attendant upon foreigners 
travelling in the interior 
v?ere removed. 




A MILITARY ESCORT 



•^•♦♦#« 



««W9¥** 9 ««#«««»««««««# 




AT SHANGHAI RAILWAY STATION 



On 

South 



the i8tK of MarcK v?e left SKangKai by train 
to Hangcnov? vJnicK we reacned in a few hours ; 

for the rest 
of our trip 
we V? e r e 
entirely' 
dependent 
on Chinese 
me ans of 
locomotion 
— b}) boat 
and chair. 

Leaving 
Hangchow 
by boat, we 
follow ed 
the course 

OUR TWO JUNKS WITH GOVERNMENT FLAGS 





OUR CHAIRS ARRIVING AT LIKOW 



of tne Tsien Tang Kiang Ri\)er up to its source at Tuting, 
on the Eastern slopes of the Wooling Shan range. We Kad 
now been travelling for tvJelve clan's through picturesque 
hillj) country. En route, we passed through the well-known 
green tea districts of F]y)chow and Tienkai. 

From Yuting, a long day's journey by chair through a 
pass in the Wooling Shan, brought us to our objective, 
Kimun City, which, spelt as Keemun, is known all over 
the world. 




•^'*'ije. , 



HAULING UP A SMALL RAPID 




SOLDIERS GUARDING OUR PACKS-TIENKAI 

Kimun Cit-p, we made our headquarters for three x^'eeks, 
sta3)ing at the Tea Guild, where rooms were kindl}? placed 
at our disposal. The cit>> is a small one; the buildings and 




RESTING AT A TEA HOUSE 



Citj) vJalls are in a 
bad state of repair ; 
tke people generally? 
are poor, and the 
district does not 
seem to ha-^e full}) 
recovered from the 
ravages of the Tai 
Ping rebels of sixty 
and more j^ears ago. 
The city itself with- 
stood a long siege, 
though the countrj) 
around was laid in 
waste. 

From Kimun w'e 
made a tour of the 
principal districts, 
the most noted 
being Likow, Chen 
Shang, Poncheng, 
from whence comes 
the noted "Sien Gar" Chop and Kov? Tang. We were altogether 
eight days on this inspection. What vCe saW was a sad revela- 
tion tea in China is indigenous, it is a hardy plant and grows 




TEA GUILD, KIMUN CITY 




FACTORY AT LIKOW 



t 




TEA BUSHES AT GODONG 



rather than is cuhivated. Plantations, in the true sense of the 
■word, do not exist — in some districts hke Poncheng there are 
fair sized hills covered v?ith tea, but for the most part the bushes 
exist but in small clearings on the hillsides, created by the 
farmers in their spare time ; pruning and fertilizing are practically 
unknown and man}) of the bushes are choked v?ith weeds. 

Very few 
of the factory 
owners have 
any share or 
apparent inter- 
est in the tea 
grounds. The 
method of fi- 
nancing and 
collecting the 
tea is as fol- 
lows : Earlj) in 
the Spring, the 
Tea Broker 
Hongs work- 





1 




S^S' 



THE BUYING DEPOT AT KEEMUN VILLAGE 




WOMEN PICKING TEA ON HILLS AT KEEMUN 

ing from the Market Centre, say Hankow, CKangKai or 
Foocnov? according to v?KicK district it ma^y) belong, send 
silver mone^), partly their ov)n and partly borrowed from nati\Je 
banks, up to the district factories. These, as soon as the first leaf 
is picked, send agents into all the surrounding villages with 
money to open the leaf-buying depots. 

It is an unfortunate fact that two-thirds of the process of 
manufacture are done by the countrymen on the hillsides and 
outlying villages, before the tea comes into the hands of the 
factories at all. ' 




TEA GROWING ON HILLS OF KEEMUN 



TKe ov?ner of tKe busKes and nis family) pick tne tea tKem- 
selves, or ratker strip the busKes of all green leaf. TKe>) Kave 
otber business to attend to, such as rice cultivation and the 
rape seed crop to gather in ; so the speedier they collect the leaf 
the better. There is no premium on careful picking, as every- 
one's leaf is mixed up in the factories, \\'here twigs and other 
rubbish have to be picked out by a number of children em- 
ployed by the factory for that purpose. 

The factories during the autumn, \>?inter and early spring are 
deserted and closed, and on first arriA)ing in the district, the 




SUN DRYING TEA ON RIVER BANK NEAR FOWLING 

question of where the necessary labor is to come from puzzles 
one. HovJever, a few days before the leaf is ready for picking, 
the usual labor migration starts from the south, and all the main 
paths over the hills are aliS)e with an endless procession of natives 
who sort themsel\)es out among the ^)illages of the district ; 
some for \\)ork in the factories, others on the hillsides. 

The picking of the most forw'ard bushes commences practically 
simultaneously ; the more back^xJard bushes are left for a few 
dajJs before picking, which explains the second and third packs. 

As soon as the sun is up in the morning, and the dev? dried 
from the leaf, picking begins. When sufficient has been gath- 
ered, the leaf is spread out thinl>) on matting in the sun to wither: 
then, when sufficiently soft, so that the thickest stems are no 




ROLLING TEA BY HAND 



longer brittle, it is placed on tKe rolling table and manipulated 
in large balls bj) the hands, for a few minutes, until v?ell 
bruised and sticky with its own sap. 




WITHERING THE GREEN TEA LEAF 



Tne leaf is now ready for fermenting, and is placed in large 
circular baskets, co\)ered o\^er \v'itK a clotK and placed in the 
sun. The process may last for an hour or two hours, accord- 
ing to the temperature of the da}?. The leaf is stirred around 
se^)eral times, so that the fermentation may be e-Oen through- 
out. When finished, the leaf will haS)e turned copper- 
colored. 

The countrj^man has still one more task to perform, that of 
sun drying. The fermented leaf is spread out thin on mats 




TEA-DRYING ON MATS-KEEMUN 



in the sun and soon assumes a reddish black color, as the 
moisture is drawn out of the leaf. 

When properly sun-dried, the leaf loses 50% or more of 
the original green leaf weight. The countryman now gathers 
up his leaf into a bag and makes his wa^? into the nearest 
village vjhere he eventually sells it to the depot vChich will pay 
the highest price. 



TKe fac- 
tory bu^^ers 
na\)e to be 
s n r e w d 
men, able to 
judge how 
mucK mois- 
ture still re- 
mains in tne 
leaf, as some 
coun try - 
men try to 
skimp tne 
sun drying. 
Howe^)er, 
this often recoils on tKem, as they get a poor price, because 
over-damp tea maj) go sour in transit to the factory). 

Each da^) the depot sends its purchases to their factory' , 
where, after a preliminary firing to preser^)e it, it is stored until 
suflicient leaf has been collected to make one or two hundred 
packages of finished tea. 




YE GREAT TEA MEN OF GODONG 




JOSS HOUSE USED FOR STORAGE 




LEAD LININGS FACTORY 



dne jinal stage nas now been reached and it remains for tne factory 
to produce tKe finished article. Mne leaf, as bougKt by tnem, is a long, 
sprawley article of reddisK black color, in st^le ratner resembling 

PoucKong tea. 

A light firing 
renders the leaf 
brittle, and it is 
then broken down 
to the size, as 
known to the trade, 
bj) being passed 
through a compli- 
cated S2?stem of 
sie\)es, of \'arious 
sized mesh, man- 
ipulated by hand, 
some in lateral mo- 
tion, and some in 
rotary) motion — at 
various stages, this 
system enables the 
workmen to re- 
move small stalks 
and any coarse leaf 
tea. 

When the leaf 

has all been worked 

dovJn to the re- 

TEA ON ITS WAY TO POYANG LAKE quired size, it is 




read]? for the final firings ; of tKese, tKere are usually tKree, the tea 
being placed in baskets o^)er slow charcoal fires. Firing bp the Chinese 
method is a great art, and though laborious is undoubtedly superior to 
the machine firing, as is evident by the superior keeping powers of 
China tea. The repeated firings are to insure the expelling of all 
moisture from the leaf, slowl>), vJithout destro>)ing the flavor and 
substance of the tea. 

The leaf is then carefully bulked, and after again being lightl>> 
fired, is packed while still warm into the vPell-known lead-lined China 
half-chests ; it is now ready for transporting to the market in 
Hankow*. 

From the Kimun side of the Wooling Shang range, a number of 
small rivers flow westward into the Poyang lake, which in turn con- 
nects with the Yangtsze River. This is the route by which the 
Keemun teas reach Hankow, and v?hich we followed. The first part 
of the journey from Keemun to Jo^>?chow, at the entrance to the 
Poyang lake, is done in ver;? small boats propelled by oars, as the 
river is very shallow— only a fevJ packages of tea can be carried in 
each. When, however, the Lake is reached, the small boats transfer 
their cargoes to big junks which have a capacity of several thousand 




SCENE AT JOWCHOW— ENTRANCE TO POYANG LAKE 



packages eacK. TKese are towed by launch tKrougK the Lake to 
Kiukiang, tKe first ri%)er port on tKe Tangtsze, where the>' in turn 
discharge into the tig ri\)er steamers which dehver the cargo in 
Hankow in eighteen hours. 

From Kimun to Hankoxv) takes approximate!}? eight da^Js — we 
reached Hankow on the eighteenth of May, ha\'ing been in the 
interior nearly ten vJeeks. 

From the foregoing description, it will be seen hov? dependent the 
manufacture of tea in China is upon the weather conditions. More- 
over, as the finest Keemuns are all made in about a fortnight, it is 
very much a case of putting all one's eggs in one basket. 

'This explains, doubtless, the big variations from year to year in 
teas from the same district. 

S. W. HARRIS 

of Harrisons, King & Irwin, Ltd. 




INSPECTING A TEMPLE— KEEMUN 




Messrs. Harrisons & Crosfield, Ltd. 

London, England Kobe, Japan 

Batavia, Java, Dutch East Indies Kuala Lumpur, Federated Malay States 

Bandoeng,Java,Dutch East Indies Medan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies 

Calcutta, India Quilon, Travancore, India 

Calicut, India Tangier, Morocco, North Africa 

Colombo, Ceylon Montreal, Canada 

Messrs. Twining, Crosfield & Co., Ltd. 

London, England 

Messrs. The South Africa Nectar Tea Co., Ltd. 

Cape Town, South Africa 

Messrs. Harrisons, Kin^ & Irwin Ltd. 

Shanghai, China Foochow, China Hankow, China 

Messrs. Irw^in-Harrisons & Crosfield, Inc. 

Shidzuoka, Japan Daitotei, Formosa 

Messrs. Harrisons, Ramsay Pty. Ltd. 

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Auckland, New Zealand 

Sydney, N. S. W., Australia Wellington, New Zealand 

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Christchurch, New Zealand 

Adelaide, South Australia Dunedin, New Zealand 

Messrs. Goddard & Freecorn 

Perth, Western Australia 

Messrs. Harrisons & Eastern Export Ltd. 

Calcutta, India Colombo, Ceylon 

Messrs. Harrisons & Crosfield (Borneo) Ltd. 

Sandakan, British North Borneo Jesselton, British North Borneo 

Messrs. Barker & Co., Ltd. 

Singapore, Straits Settlements 

Messrs. Lionel Marie & Co. 

Paris, France 

IRWIN-HARRISONS & CROSFIELD, Inc. 

NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO 

BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO 



iLlflEy ^^ CONGRESS 




